


Fish Out of Water

by sunshinestealer



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, M/M, Mermen, Royalty, Viktor is... idk yet, Yuuri is a frilled shark, hey marine biologists hit me up with what kind of mer viktor could be, merfolk, mermaid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-10-07 20:23:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10368678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinestealer/pseuds/sunshinestealer
Summary: Viktuuri mermaid prince AU because why not.Lemon in later chapters.





	1. -Chlamydoselachus anguineus-

"My my, I wasn't expecting _you_ here."

Yuuri Katsuki’s heart froze, as he heard those words from behind. That beautiful accent could only belong to the very same prince who Yuuri had royally embarrassed himself in front of one year prior. Maybe not enough to totally disgrace his family and get them excluded from the international gatherings of mermaid royalty, but enough to go absolutely beetroot red, gills flaring up under his glamour. Worst of all, Yuuri could barely remember what had happened.

Viktor Nikiforov's tone was hardly scolding. In fact, there was a gentle humour underlying his words. 

Yuuri turned around, seeing the prince with a champagne flute in one hand. He was beautiful in person, as one would expect a member of their race - even underneath the glamour that the matriarchs of their families cast over them for a human appearance.

As far as Yuuri could remember, royals of every merfolk family from every oceanic region of the globe came to gather in a palace purchased by the Nikiforov dynasty for an annual soiree. This was where he and Viktor were currently standing, in a ballroom so opulent and gilded that the French Classicists would have told the designers to tone it down a bit.

It had become very fashionable in the past few centuries for merfolk to walk on land, curiously observing the humans and learning much of their culture. The one dynasty that were the most know for setting this trend, however, were the Nikiforovs, a family dating back to the sirens and naiads of Greece. They were beautiful and fascinating to humankind. Never once letting their secret slip, they had settled on land and used their allure to make a fortune. Some of the elder siblings were famed sirens of the stage, others diplomats and business tycoons. Viktor's mother, Vitalka, had reasoned that with all the wealth and influence on land, why would they ever need to return to their lives in their White Sea?

Whilst the elder members of the family still governed beneath the waves, the younger Nikiforov family managed their empire of influence on land. The youngest, Viktor (now 27 years old) was the first Nikiforov prince to live almost entirely out of water for his entire childhood and adolescence.

On the other hand, Yuuri and his family and subjects lived in the tropical waters around the southern Japanese isles in winter and the East Sea in summer, and Yuuri had definitely felt incredibly awkward as he walked on stiff legs through the airport in Nagasaki, having to remind himself of the routine he'd been taught for boarding an airplane (by that weird cousin who'd eschewed her mermaid roots and married a human) every few seconds. Boarding pass. Passport. Visa. Bag full of human clothes that he had hurriedly bought at a Uniqlo in the city before running for the airport shuttle bus. To think he had only been on a plane a few hours ago, and was now in this opulent palace... he was grateful that the Nikiforovs had arranged for him to be picked up at the airport with the representatives from the South China Sea and the Pacific.

However, Yuuri was not looking forward to the party. He had to go as a social obligation, definitely, but he had hoped that his parents would be the ones to make the journey. Maybe his other relatives, certainly not the Heir Apparent. He'd even considered swimming to the United States to be with his friends, so he'd be as far away as possible from the need to go and hobnob with the Nikiforovs. But his parents had insisted, and Yuuri had had to swallow down his fear and promise them that he would attend.

“Um, yes. I wasn’t expecting…” _To see you here._ Yuuri stopped himself at the redundancy of that statement. “To… attend.” 

_Oh no, that sounds so rude!_

“Why were you not expecting to attend?” Viktor asked, gently.

_That’s it. I’m digging my own grave._

“Family… stuff.”

Mercifully, Viktor decided not to press any further with that line of questioning. “I see.” He smiled - that warm, beatific smile that made Yuuri’s mother’s heart melt last year - and placed a hand on Yuuri’s shoulder. 

“Perhaps we could slip away from here soon? We have a pool, my friend. I would expect you’re a bit of a fish out of water here, yes?”

_You are too!_ Yuuri chided, but decided not to say aloud. “I… I would like that.”

“Me too,” Viktor said. He crooked a finger for a waiter to bring over some hors d’oeuvres and a glass of champagne for Yuuri.

He gratefully accepted the smoked salmon blini, but shook his head at the waiter trying to give him a glass of sparkling wine. 

Viktor just smiled enigmatically, and wandered off into the crowd.

 

* * *

 

Yuuri hadn’t been sure exactly what Viktor had meant by ‘soon’, but it had been over an hour since their conversation, and Viktor seemed to have all but disappeared from the dance floor. He’d scanned through the crowd enough times, wanting to catch a glimpse of that platinum hair, but found nothing.

He had said something about a pool, hadn’t he? It would be somewhat rude to assume a guest would know where to find one of many rooms in this labyrinthine palace. Surely he would come and _find_ Yuuri first?

Speak (or in this case, think) of the devil, and he shall appear. Viktor seemed to come out of a side room, hair tousled and silken finery ruffled.

“Sirens,” he said, making Yuuri jump at the sound of his voice for the second time that evening. “You know how they are.”

_Actually, I don’t, we don’t have them around Japan._ Yuuri nodded, vaguely. He berated himself internally for continuing to blush around Viktor, though. He could still feel his face getting more and more pink, and perhaps, he thought, if he had taken a glass of wine from the waiter earlier, he would have an excuse his scarlet ears and rosy cheeks.

Viktor laughed and took it in his stride, however, adjusting his tie and collar like sneaking off with a bunch of sirens was just a matter of fact event that happened on this night every year.

“I did promise to show you to our pool.” He said softly. “Mind if I take you there? My sister Masha says you’ve been staring in a daze all evening. I would hate to think that I was being inhospitable to a fellow royal.”

Yuuri blinked, looking over to a girl with brown hair in ringlets who was dancing with a female siren out of their glamour, and clearly keeping an eye on Yuuri.

He offered his hand to Yuuri, as if they were going to elegantly glide onto the dance floor together and join in the crowd, twirling and waltzing with their partners.

But, thankfully for his two left feet, Yuuri was simply led across the dance floor, the guests parting like the Red Sea in the presence of the young scion. All eyes were suddenly on him, and Yuuri swore he heard scandalised whispers from the European guests. 

Not that Viktor cared, as he gently tugged Yuuri through a side door, before letting go of his arm so he could walk freely.  
“Do they think we’ve…?” Yuuri asked, realising he would have a _lot_ of questions to answer once they returned to the ballroom.

Viktor gave him a puzzled look.

Yuuri gritted his teeth. This had been intentional. It _had_ to have been! Viktor could have easily slipped the two of them out through a side door in the ballroom, but no, he had to pull everyone’s attention on himself and the Prince of the East Sea. Not that Yuuri was mad at him, but why would he maintain secrecy for lower nobility sirens but not for a fellow royal guest?

They marched down the marbled halls in silence, Viktor knowing the palace like the back of his hand. Occasionally, he would point out a feature or two, the most ostentatious being a stained glass window featuring the Nikiforov family crest — a shield guarded by three merfolk, all of whom bore the same platinum silver hair and piercing blue eyes as Viktor.

Yuuri attempted to make some small talk. “Why are we going to the pool, Viktor…?”

“I can’t swim.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was… but I’m not.”

He stopped in his tracks. Here was a merman with some of the richest, most noble blood in the world — and he had just admitted that he couldn’t swim. Something that should have come as utterly second nature to him, and yet Viktor was admitting in all honesty that he could not do it.

“Yes, yes, I know! It’s ridiculous that a mermaid cannot swim. But… I couldn’t transform until a few years ago. Not even if I tried.”

Usually, that was a sign of an undine — a mermaid who was usually an outcast in the aquatic world, a humanoid creature with a limited ability to live underwater. More conservative merfolk families would shun them, or get them transformed into humans by a sea witch. Undines often lived on the land, falling in love with humans who tragically left them, to die alone of heartbreak once their natural allure wore off and their partner found another human to fall in love with.

This must have been one of the Nikiforov family’s darkest secrets if it were true, but Yuuri doubted it, since Viktor said he was now able to transform. He just couldn’t swim particularly well. Whatever the case, he was definitely different from the rest of his family that Yuuri had met over the years.

“Why do you… want to learn, then?” Yuuri asked, stepping carefully around the question. “Why now, I mean?”

Viktor sighed and turned the handle of the door that presumably led into the pool. The _holy crap twice the size of an Olympic pool_ , as Yuuri would come to see.

Stepping through the changing rooms, Viktor started shucking off his clothing. 

Yuuri looked away out of politeness, even though he saw naked chests all the time when he was home beneath the waves. Viktor’s abdomen was somehow even _more_ handsomely sculpted than the most eligible bachelors in the East Sea. One could definitely see the Greek heritage, as distant as it may have been nowadays.

Viktor looked over his shoulder, as if to suggest that Yuuri should start doing the same. He neatly folded his black smart-casual shirt and pulled off the bow tie he had been wearing, finally stepping out of hisshoes and trousers, the latter of which had been a little too tight around the middle for his liking.

“So… um. You want me to show you how to transform?” Yuuri asked as Viktor walked with him through the changing room and the shower area, finally sitting on the edge of the pool. He dangled his legs over, legs still remaining human.

“It’ll come to me,” Viktor said, with a hint of frustration in his voice.

Yuuri, on the other hand, only had to slip into the water before he felt the familiar tingle of his legs forming back into his tail. It was a pure, magical process and Yuuri was always amazed at the rush of happiness he felt after long days pretending to be human. Honestly, he hadn’t known how Viktor could stand it — but he had had to learn to cast the human glamour on himself on his father’s orders to keep an eye on his cousin Yuuko, after she had left the undersea world forever.

He undulated his tail gently, noting how stiff it was from lack of exercise. The Katsuki family had the lower halves of what humans referred to as frill sharks, long, grey sea snake-like creatures with semi-translucentfrills travelling up and down their bodies. Yuuri could move on land somewhat in this form, but it did take a lot of effort. Even more than when he had first started to learn how to walk on human legs.

He swam back over to Viktor, who seemed to be pouting. Yuuri suddenly felt bad. Had that been showing off, in Viktor’s eyes? He just wanted to show him how easy it was…

He placed his hands on Viktor’s knees, holding himself up in the water.

“How did you do it the first time?”

“In the bath,” Viktor said. “One minute it was there, then five minutes later I changed back.”

“What were you thinking of?”

“Something I love the most in the world.”

Yuuri couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “The human world, or the merfolk world?”

“I don’t know about the latter, you _know_ that.” Viktor folded his arms, giving an imperious look, which suddenly melted away. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to be,” Yuuri said softly, keeping his gaze firmly at Viktor’s… chest. No, eyes. “Maybe in exchange, you can show me how to be more human. I’ve nearly walked out of stores without paying, worn clothing incorrectly, and… other embarrassing things.”

Viktor laughed. “Sounds fair enough.”

A silence passed between them, and then Viktor slapped his legs and swore in Russian. “Come _on_.”

“Maybe if you… watch me?” Yuuri suggested. It couldn’t hurt. If Viktor transformed, he could quickly swim over and hold him up, rather than letting him sink from the shock.

“I’ll get there eventually,” Viktor insisted, but eventually conceded to Yuuri swimming a lap of the pool’s perimeter while he watched.

Yuuri was beautiful and graceful in this form, moving with such power behind him that Viktor was amazed by the fact that he had a pot belly. His core muscles must have gotten one hell of a workout every time he twisted, turned and coiled his tail underwater, but still the fat remained on his stomach.

A light pink blush was now coming to _Viktor’s_ face, though he wasn’t sure if that could have been a sign of the transformation taking effect or, more obviously, his amazement at Yuuri’s movements.

The pool itself had been built for a family of merfolk, and was deep enough for Viktor to have second thoughts about getting into. He had admitted to Prince Yuuri that he couldn’t swim, but this was true for both of his forms. Pretty embarrassing for a merman, especially the sole male heir to the Nikiforov throne.

Mermaids were a semi-matriarchal society, with males bearing ceremonial titles and ruling over their subjects as a figurehead, with the aid of a Council. Whether on sea or on land, this was the way it had always been. Viktor  _should_ have been comfortable on land, ruling over his subjects who had left the underwater world behind, as well as juggling the business empire the Nikiforovs had built up over the years. Why was he so keen to get in touch with his merman heritage? Maybe he'd spent  _too_ much time on land and simply couldn't transform back. All of these questions raced around Yuuri's head as he came to  finish his lap of the pool, using his arms to pull himself up onto the ledge with Viktor.

“Is… is there maybe a reason why you’re not transforming?” He asked, after a long silence between them. Viktor’s eyes had been screwed shut in concentration, and his fists were starting to clench.

“What species are you?” Yuuri asked softly. “Your family, I mean.”

“Cetacean,” Viktor said, with some frustration. Yuuri couldn’t help but notice some small tears slipping down. Yuuri wasn’t about to sour relationships with the Nikiforov prince by suggesting that he didn’t _have_ any merfolk heritage whatsoever, but… well, merfolk could sense their own. Viktor definitely wasn’t a full human, but he just didn’t seem to be able to transform. It'd take some digging to get down to the bottom of this problem.

“You’ll get there.”

Viktor rubbed his eyes with his arm, turning to Yuuri to take in the sight of him. Gills on his trunk, operculae gently flickering at his throat, fins that had formed along his arms, cheeks and spine. Viktor felt somewhat inadequate next to him, although he would never admit it.

“If you don’t mind me asking…” Yuuri started, one hand slipping over Viktor’s, “were you born on land or sea? That... sometimes makes a difference.”

“Technically, my mother’s yacht. Two weeks premature. Quite a surprise for her and Father.”

Yuuri didn’t quite know what to do with that information, but he cleared his throat and tried to cheer him up. “Do you want to come swimming with me? If you hold on, do you think perhaps it’ll kickstart the transformation?”

“It’s as good a suggestion as any,” Viktor replied.

 

* * *

 

 

Another hour had passed with no sight or sign of Viktor’s natural form. They had done multiple laps of the pool together, dived underwater in the hopes that the pressure and lack of air would get Viktor’s gills to appear, something, _anything_. All that had accomplished was a nearly-drowned Viktor, slapping and kicking at Yuuri's tail in a panic to get him to swim back up to the surface.

Finally, they had called it a night. There was no clock in the pool, but there were tall French windows with views of the palace grounds. Yuuri could only imagine this place would look amazing on summer days, with the family lounging around with their staff providing drinks and massages. It was clearly night-time, and Yuuri could only imagine the party upstairs suddenly realising the absence of the host. Which would then mean that the Nikiforov staff (not all of whom were merfolk) were obliged to come looking for Viktor.

Yuuri helped Viktor out of the pool, slithering out onto the tiles and into the changing room, where his outfit from tonight had been previously abandoned. He changed back into his human form, feeling sorry for Viktor as he watched the process in the mirror behind, pulling his own clothing back on.

“What should we say when we get back to the party?” Yuuri asked, trying to shove his shoes on rather than remember Yuuko’s hurried explanation on how to lace them.

Viktor rubbed a towel through his hair, offering no comment.

“I’m here all week, you know… How about we do this every night? Every night until you can… well, transform. There’s got to be a way you can do it.” He tried to sound confident for Viktor, although this would probably ring hollow to the Russian prince, whose next action was to clear his throat and nod towards the door that led to the rest of the palace.

“You go ahead of me.”

“Why?”

From his body language, Yuuri could have guessed that Viktor wanted to snap at him, but decided against it in the last minute.

“Just. Go, okay?”

Yuuri got up from the bench, with a nod.

“Remember, I’ll be here all week.”

Viktor said nothing, but the silence - and then the barely audible sobbing - was painful enough for Yuuri as he made his way out through the door and into the wing of the palace they had just come in from. He swore he would help this poor man out, he had always had a heart of gold — but that would entirely depend on whether Viktor was willing to let him help.

Yuuri sighed, coming to the realisation that he had no idea how to get back to the ballroom.

“…Damn it.”


	2. -Acipenser gueldenstaedtii-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor and Yuuri have a little chat.

Yuuri eventually made his way back to the ballroom, after flagging down a serving girl and explaining his predicament. She had immediately recognised him as one of the royal guests and had nearly dropped her tray, insisting that she walked him through the corridors and back into the bosom of the party.

The party which, by now, was dwindling. It was 2am and the older royals were heading off to bed, and most of the younger attendees were keen to sneak off some alcohol into their rooms and spend the night there, rather than continually being scrutinised by their elders and worrying about what gossip may arise out of this party, the way Yuuri had had to only last year.

Royals were terrified of their secrets getting out – it was a social death sentence. The court had a very long memory, and even though Yuuri had not been teased at all for last year’s debacle tonight, he knew that several of his noble fellows were just bristling at the memory of it. To make it worse, Yuuri hadn’t even been able to remember just what he had done. One moment he remembered being introduced to Viktor Nikiforov, then he and the young princes of the Asian seas had raided the wine cellar and… well. One thing had led to another, and Yuuri had woken up with a pounding headache and a vague recollection that he had made a fool of himself. He had travelled home from the party that year absolutely mortified, but too anxious to even ask Phichit, Guang Hong or Seung-gil what he had done.

He looked around the ballroom for them, but presumed that they had remembered the exact location of the wine cellar from last year, and were currently drinking up a storm down there, or in their rooms. Yuuri knew his bedroom was next to Phichit’s, so he wasn’t going to sleep well tonight unless he stuffed his head under the pillow.

Finally, he decided to call it a night, and had edged out of the door, thanking the serving girl who had escorted him and was hovering nervously nearby. He said he wouldn’t need directions to find his room, thankfully, and bid her a good night. She blushed and curtsied, quickly leaving the room under the pretence of preparing tomorrow’s breakfast on the veranda overlooking the lake. Just how the Nikiforov clan expected their guests to wake up before 10am after a party that stretched on until after midnight was anybody’s guess.

He made his way up to his bedroom, recalling that it was down two corridors, up a flight of stairs and the… third door on the right? Something like that? He’d easily recognise the noise coming from Phichit’s room, in any case.

As he walked down the corridor, he couldn’t help but look again at the Nikiforov family portraits, arranged in diptychs on the wood panelling. The platinum blond hair seemed to have come from a great-grandmother who had been a famous opera singer during Russia’s golden age. Strangely, she had married a human Russian duke who successfully went into hiding in Helsinki in his old age, while still being betrothed to her husband undersea. Rumours would have naturally abounded, if she was spending the majority of her time up on land with a human. Maybe the lineage had been tainted? Not that it made sense, considering that Yuuri had met the elder Nikiforovs and they were, indeed, merfolk. No doubt about it. One dalliance with a human (with no reported children) clearly hadn’t been enough to taint the genetics of their family tree. Though it may have explained just why Viktor had difficulty transforming. Maybe it had skipped several generations?

He continued on down the corridor and up the marble staircase, amazed at the opulence on display. The Katsuki clan certainly wouldn’t have done anything like this, choosing to remain humble in the eyes of their subjects. His older sister ran a hot spring in a small Kyushu town called Hasetsu, built on the grounds of an ancient property that had fallen into ruin and was seeing no investment due to the expense of the deed. Mari Katsuki had shown up out of nowhere, with double the money that the realtors were asking for, and no questions had been asked. (Again, a Katsuki ploy to keep an eye on cousin Yuuko when Yuuri was unavailable.)

He sighed and started to try the doors along the corridor, trying to remember which one was his. Mercifully, he got it right on the first try – and Phichit and the others were presumably fast asleep after their night of drinking, rather than partying until the wee hours.

Yuuri found himself falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

 

* * *

 

“Yuuri? Yuuri?”

He had only had an hour of sleep, and now he was being shaken awake. Yuuri groaned and went to pick up his glasses, only to find a delicate, pale hand holding them for him, with the bedside lamp on dimly beside Yuuri – illuminating the features of Viktor Nikiforov.

“I’m sorry,” Viktor said.

“Sorry for what?”

“Sorry you had to see me like that. Earlier.”

“Oh.”

_Couldn’t this have waited until morning?_ Yuuri wanted to roll his eyes, but Viktor sighed and put the glasses back on the bedside cabinet, going to stand up.

“Masha said everyone was talking about us tonight.”

_Oh my God._

“They wondered where we disappeared off to.”

_Of course they did, you had to make a spectacle of taking me off somewhere!_

“I told her it was nothing scandalous.”

_I’m glad you did!_

“But… um. It’s my fault for doing that, and I apologise.”

_Just because Masha told you to?_

Yuuri sighed, rubbing his eyes.

“And I’m sorry for waking you right now.”

He had never expected the Prince of the White Sea to be quite this apologetic. First for getting upset, then for potentially sowing rumour among the court, and now this.Yuuri yawned and waved his hand. “It’s all right.”

“Can we keep this secret between us?” Viktor asked, clearing his throat to dispel some obvious nerves in his voice. “That I can’t…. you know, and I want to learn?”

He blinked. That was a hell of a lot of trust and faith to place into someone – the implications if this ever got out into the gossip mill would be astronomical, and Yuuri could hardly believe Viktor was trusting him with it at all. Though it was probably only because of tonight’s events, not because he was special. Though he did have to wonder why Viktor had picked him, out of all of the possible royals he could have trusted the secret with…

Phichit might have let it slip, Seung-Gil was too serious and might have used it as leverage, and Guang-Hong was simply too young. That left Yuuri out of the Asian princes, but… what about Prince Otabek or the Plisetsky heir apparent from the noble branch family? What about the other princes and princesses of the Atlantic and the North Sea?

Viktor took one of Yuuri’s hands, who was too sleepy to protest. “Please?”

“Fine. We’ll go swimming every night I’m here. I’ll teach you the basics, and hopefully something will happen? Unless you’re. Um.”

“Human?” Viktor finished for him. His eyes narrowed, as if this was something he had in fact mulled over for himself — and never expected a stranger to say out loud.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Yuuri said, his lip trembling. “I mean. Maybe you’re an undine or something?”

Viktor sighed, looking down towards Yuuri’s blankets. “I’m _not_. I’ve transformed before.” Then, without another word, he stood up and made to leave. “I’ll see you at 7pm tonight. Same place.”

_Great_ , Yuuri thought. _There goes my invitation for any future parties like this. Especially after last year._ He flopped back against his pillows, going pink as he heard the door shut with some finality.

_But he asked me to help… well, coach him. I said yes, then offended him, but apparently we’re still going to swim together tonight? What’s wrong with him anyway?_

He decided he was too tired to fathom it now, and it could wait until the morning at the very least. 


	3. -Erignathus barbatus-

Pale sunshine filtered in through the gossamer curtains of Yuuri's suite bedroom that morning. In his sleeping stupor, he vaguely recalled Viktor wandering into his room earlier that morning, though he could barely remember the details. He'd apologised for taking Yuuri away from the party, then asked him to continue with their lessons, then left... and Yuuri had fallen asleep wondering if he had offended him.

 _God_ , any big Nikiforov event did a number on his anxiety, and not just since last year. When his father had retired from attending these events, it fell to Yuuri to represent the family - hence the coaching he had been through to appear normal on land, the hours he’d spent in Mari’s hot spring learning how to fully control his glamour, so the mer transformation wasn’t triggered by an errant splash of water or a sudden downpour.

When he thought about it, though - he and Viktor really were polar opposites. Yuuri had lived undersea for almost his entire life. He had been schooled by the royal tutor and shielded from humans. Of course, he knew that they existed, but Yuuri had never had a yearning to go up to the surface world, perfectly content beneath the waves. It had come as a shock to the family when his older sister Mari had left the family commune one night when Yuuri was twelve years old, but she had at least arranged a meeting between the family and her human husband, with whom she had been meeting in secret for at least a year on the beaches of the southern tip of Kyushu.

This was not the same case for Viktor, who had been educated in a top private academy in Moscow. To the humans, he was simply the scion to a large business empire, not a child of Poseidon.

Yuuri rose, sitting against his pillows and rubbing a hand against his neck, feeling the gills beneath his glamour. He very much doubted he could teach Viktor every single facet of being a merman within a week, but he reminded himself that he had himself gone through a very similar, rushed learning process to effectively behave like a human. It wasn’t like he despised being in Viktor’s company - in fact, Yuuri did admire him, even counting the embarrassment from last year that everybody had kept so silent about all these months…

He sighed and rose, resolving to find the dining rooms in this labyrinthine palace for breakfast. There was a door in his suite that connected through to the rooms that Guang-Hong, Seung-Gil and Phichit were sharing - but when he knocked on the door and called after dressing himself, there came no reply.  He shrugged, presuming there were three very tired and/or hungover princes in the room next to him.

There was, thankfully, a serving girl who was more than happy to point one of the Nikiforovs’ esteemed guests to a shortcut down to the first dining room (of course, there were _six_ rooms just for dining in this place, and four kitchens - human royalty really were something), where a breakfast buffet had been set up, although he had risen comparatively early for the morning after a big soirée.

The dining room featured a table at least fifteen meters long, immaculately laid out with a white tablecloth and floral arrangements. The French windows had a gorgeous view of the lake surrounding the property, with the morning sun pouring in and catching the dangling crystals of the chandelier. The buffet table had already been laid out to one side of the room, and had just about everything for the international guests, along with the traditional Russian breakfast staples.

Yuuri had taken some meat cuts, black bread and some rice from the cooker when he felt a hand tap him on the shoulder.

“Victor?” He asked, too nervous to turn around.

“No, but we do get mistaken for each other,” a heavily accented voice purred. _Definitely_ not Viktor. The voice was feminine and earnest, and the hand remained on Yuuri’s shoulder even when he had awkwardly tried to get her to remove it. “My name is Maria Nikiforov, but everyone knows me as Masha.”

“Oh. Oh!” Yuuri said, turning around to greet her. He had to put down his breakfast plate to offer out his hand to the tall girl with the brown ringlets, who partly resembled Viktor. “You’re his sister?”

“Half-sister,” she corrected. “Same birthday and same father, but different mothers.”

“I see,” Yuuri said, blushing.

Maria Nikiforov was often seen at Viktor’s side, and from what Yuuri had learned last year, she often acted as his personal assistant and attaché to the world of the merfolk when Viktor’s parents and extended family left him on land for long enough.

According to Phichit’s gossip, Maria was also a freelance journalist for several large newspapers and had developed an adoration for gossip that had put her in charge of the rumour mill. In fact, Yuuri suspected that she had probably spread _something_ around last year, with how many people finished their conversations the moment Yuuri walked past or tried to talk with them at other royal merfolk gatherings.

Hence why Yuuri had sat out several of them, not wanting to be remembered as the awkward member of the Katsuki royal family, dragging their reputation through the dirt and inviting challengers to try and take over their peaceful underwater kingdom. His father had worked so hard for it, he would have never forgiven himself if he managed to lose the kingdom due to a series of social faux pas. Even if that was the worst case scenario, he couldn’t stop thinking about it - so he cleared his throat, trying to remember to remain confident around her.

Maria invited Yuuri to come sit with her, quickly picking up her own breakfast plate. “He’s told me a _lot_ about you, Prince Yuuri.”

_Oh no._

“What exactly?” Yuuri spluttered, not sure if he’d like the response. Had Viktor told his closest sister about their meeting last night? He knew that Viktor had spoken with Masha about… _something_ that had happened last night, considering Viktor’s late night rambling and invitation (nay, demand) for more swimming lessons this week.

“That you’re cute, and your mer-form is a shark, which is a _lot_ cooler than being a dolphin or some kind of whale, right?” Masha grinned, adjusting a thick brown shawl she had around her shoulders. One which seemed… well, rather heavy for a warm, sunny morning. Yuuri had a sudden realisation.

“You’re a selkie. That’s pretty rare.”

“Pfft, it’s no big deal,” she said, pouring them both a cup of black tea out of the samovar in the middle of the table. She was friendly and accommodating, but one could tell that she was mentally recording this conversation to be written down later, with plenty of embellishments and interpretations of his body language and tone. Not in a villainous way, he came to realise - but this was simply how she had been raised, with these personality traits making her perfect for journalistic and/or diplomatic activities.

“It is a big deal,” Yuuri said, remembering his education on selkies - they were the only merfolk who did not appear humanoid at all without a glamour - and like sirens, the population were mostly female. “I mean, it’s a pretty big transformation and it’s also very difficult to cover with a glamour, right? I mean… um. From what I’ve heard.”

Masha went quiet for a while, while Yuuri paled at the prospect of having brought up mer transformation when he’d sworn to keep it a secret to Viktor. The silence was damning, and he could feel the colour leaching out of him. Was Masha going to pass this on to her friends when she gossiped with them over tea? That Prince Yuuri had ignorantly offended her at breakfast this morning?

Just when he was about to apologise, Masha dabbed his face with a cloth, wiping away a stray edge of butter from his toast. “You’re right,” she said. “It is difficult.” She cocked her head and smiled, ringlets bobbing. “It’s no secret, you know. About my brother.”

Yuuri blinked. “What about your brother?”

Masha giggled. “Oh, _you know_. I was going to try this out on the other mer princes who’re staying here this week, and you fell for it, hook line and sinker on the first day. Viktor said he’d gotten a coach, but wouldn’t tell me who, so…”

A blush spread across his cheeks, again.

“Relax, relax! I’m Viktor’s sister, I know that he doesn’t automatically transform when we go swimming and he beats himself up over it. He’s always wanted to know what he looks like in his true form, da? And when he _has_ been able to transform, more recently… poor boy can never keep it up long enough.”

“In the water, or…?”

“Well, there was one incident where I had to take Viktor out of his school for a week in final year after he fainted during exams and transformed in the nurse’s office… He transformed back once our valet brought the car around to bring him home.”

Yuuri sipped at his tea, enjoying the complex flavours of the beverage. Was it possible that stress brought on Viktor’s transformation? Maybe he’d have to incorporate that into their training. “Viktor’s mother is from a Cetacean line, right? Maybe the waters around here are too warm for the transformation to take effect?”

Masha shrugged. “We did suggest going to Svalbard and trying that out, but Viktor went off on his travels after college and it just never happened.”

“Sorry if I’m asking too many questions, I just want to know if I can help him in any way.” Yuuri said, after a pause.

“Just continue being you.” Masha said, getting up to take her plate to the washing station. “There’s no time limit or anything. I think this will be good for him.”

Yuuri was desperate for this conversation not to end, for Masha not to have an excuse to leave him alone. She’d answered many of his more obvious questions, but these had only left more questions unanswered. “How come you can’t teach him, then?”

Masha turned and gave him a blank look. “Selkies are a bit… different, my friend. As you just said.”

“O-oh yeah, I suppose I did.”

She placed another hand on his shoulder. “No need to worry, just keep on looking after Vitya. Do right by me, and I will do right by you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Yuuri said, offering a smile. He hoped that Masha’s impression of him was positive -- but his anxiety said otherwise as she sauntered out of the dining room, heading towards the lake where a few princesses had already gathered.


End file.
